One of Munich's most famous landmarks, /index.html]The Walking Man, will soon be 10 years old. If this giant figure were actually walking it would have circled the Earth 21½ times by now. The statue was commissioned by Munich Reinsurance in 1995. It stands outside their offices on Leopoldstrasse. The Walking Man was created by the American artist Jonathan Barofsky. The sections were built in California before being shipped over and assembled in Munich. Barofsky has exhibited numerous other giant walking figures all over the world including Berlin, Frankfurt, Strasbourg, Tokyo, Seoul, and New York. Curiously, Barofsky also spent 7 years of his life counting. Yes, counting. Sequentially, from one towards infinity. He wrote down the numbers in series across pieces of paper. The 1976 exhibit was a tall stack of sheets with the numbers 1 to 3,227,146. Apparently he still spends a few hours a week counting. Art, or compulsive disorder? Click for the /index.html]self portrait.
[img]http://www.toytowngermany.com/munich/walking_man_munich.jpg[/img]
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The Walking Man
Modern art sculpture on Leopoldstraße
I personally believe that this giant man is nothing but a humungus piece of junk. It is totally inappropriate for the place it is being.I never could understand the theme behind it & what is artistic about is?? It is a pity that enormous sums of money are being spent on junk art while many deserving artists are withering in slums.
"If this giant figure were actually walking it would have circled the Earth 21½ times by now"
Yeah, and if my aunt Mary had a willy she'd be my uncle Bob.
Yeah, and if my aunt Mary had a willy she'd be my uncle Bob.
The giant's stride is roughly 10x that of a human. But this doesn't equate to 10x the speed. Instead let's assume an extremely conservative estimate of twice the speed, i.e. 10 Km/hr. Ten years = 87,600 hours so that makes 876,000 Km walked. Divide that by the circumference of the earth (40,000 Km) and you get, well, closer to 22 circuits actually. QED.
Rahul, the walking man is a work of beauty compared to the "Angel of the North" in Gateshead or the Iron Man on Birmingham's Victoria Square.
As for "deserving artists are withering in slums", "deserving" is purely subjective. I'm sure Munich Reinsurance wouldn't have commissioned Jonathan Barofsky if they didn't think he was any good.
As for "deserving artists are withering in slums", "deserving" is purely subjective. I'm sure Munich Reinsurance wouldn't have commissioned Jonathan Barofsky if they didn't think he was any good.
Nothing like a good slum for an artist to wither about in and find inspiration. There's plenty more art in the company buildings, so maybe somewhere along the way they have helped a few deserving ones to crawl out of their hellhole into a Schwabing atelier.
Btw this year Munich Re itself will be 125 years old. Major shindig planned for 14 July.
Btw this year Munich Re itself will be 125 years old. Major shindig planned for 14 July.
As an object I actually quite like it. Its not bad as catalogue art goes.
Unfortunately, and a very big unfortunately most art like this can be grouped under corporate art.
Which is really nothing more than a company saying 'hey lets have some art now' all that matters is that the company gains some kind of noteriety through its sponsorship of the arts as can be seen by the second sentence of the introduction "The statue was commissioned by..."..I mean what is important here, the art or whoever bought it mail order.
Someone coined the phrase 'turd in the plaza art' which I find quite apt here. Put more politely it means anything which is just stuck in a public place with no thought or reference to its surroundings has no more relevance to the viewer than well, a dog turd in a plaza. Or in this case, digested and assembled in California and dumped here.
I agree to a certain extent with the sponsorship of artists, and the percentage for art programme which exists. However what is lacking is education against art for arts sake.
Public art should be just that, art for the public. Make sculptures site specific, make them interact with their surroundings, make them interact with the people that see them, make them mean something to the people that live, work, exist in the city.
Rant over.
Unfortunately, and a very big unfortunately most art like this can be grouped under corporate art.
Which is really nothing more than a company saying 'hey lets have some art now' all that matters is that the company gains some kind of noteriety through its sponsorship of the arts as can be seen by the second sentence of the introduction "The statue was commissioned by..."..I mean what is important here, the art or whoever bought it mail order.
Someone coined the phrase 'turd in the plaza art' which I find quite apt here. Put more politely it means anything which is just stuck in a public place with no thought or reference to its surroundings has no more relevance to the viewer than well, a dog turd in a plaza. Or in this case, digested and assembled in California and dumped here.
I agree to a certain extent with the sponsorship of artists, and the percentage for art programme which exists. However what is lacking is education against art for arts sake.
Public art should be just that, art for the public. Make sculptures site specific, make them interact with their surroundings, make them interact with the people that see them, make them mean something to the people that live, work, exist in the city.
Rant over.
How is corporate art any different than it used to be centuries ago? Centuries ago, painters and sculptors were commissioned by royalty and rich merchants to do their work. They were the corporations of yesteryear.
Like it or not, Walking Man is here to stay, and it has become well known over the few years since it was made.
I have been working as a contractor for Munich Re for 14 months now, and last year had an office right down the street from walking man (Leo 30) for a few months. It took a while, but he does grow on you. It is funny too, to see all of the tourist that take the U-bahn there just to see him. If the Walking Man is the decider whether they come to Munich, great. The more tourist, the better it is for Munich (except during Oktoberfest of course- the opposite applies!).
I think that one thing at Munich Re (Leo 36) that is even more impressive than the walking man is the underground maze going all the way from Leopoldstrasse 36 to Koenigin Str. where the main Munich Re building is located. There is an amazing network of underground hallways with many different themes, colors and sounds is just fun. Take a look at their website http://www.munichre.com/, go to the menu "corporate" and then the submenu "Art & Architecture". A few pictures of the hallways are in the "Art at Munich Re" section, a few pics of the other buildings are in "Architecture at Munich Re". At the bottom right there is an 01 and an 02, which are links to the 2 pictures availalbe.
David
I have been working as a contractor for Munich Re for 14 months now, and last year had an office right down the street from walking man (Leo 30) for a few months. It took a while, but he does grow on you. It is funny too, to see all of the tourist that take the U-bahn there just to see him. If the Walking Man is the decider whether they come to Munich, great. The more tourist, the better it is for Munich (except during Oktoberfest of course- the opposite applies!).
I think that one thing at Munich Re (Leo 36) that is even more impressive than the walking man is the underground maze going all the way from Leopoldstrasse 36 to Koenigin Str. where the main Munich Re building is located. There is an amazing network of underground hallways with many different themes, colors and sounds is just fun. Take a look at their website http://www.munichre.com/, go to the menu "corporate" and then the submenu "Art & Architecture". A few pictures of the hallways are in the "Art at Munich Re" section, a few pics of the other buildings are in "Architecture at Munich Re". At the bottom right there is an 01 and an 02, which are links to the 2 pictures availalbe.
David
"How is corporate art any different than it used to be centuries ago? Centuries ago, painters and sculptors were commissioned by royalty and rich merchants to do their work. They were the corporations of yesteryear" Show'em.
To answer, There is no difference I am sure that the numerous, bronze bloke on a horse, Greek fellow without clothes or picture of the missus as witness to the birth of christ meant just as little to the general public centuries ago as modern corporate art means to us today. Coming from centuries ago, pre information age, one reason for their lasting importance is as a historical record of who was important and who was wealthy and who made history.
However, I very much doubt if such an artwork is going to say to people in 500 years, wow, now we know what was going on, that art was a product of the late 20th century and obviously shows bla bla bla ("sod this I'm off south to escape the unemployment or something").
Also, corporate art, I am not against it at all, it should just have a bit of thought, corporate responsibility if you like. As you said, in centuries past, the corporations would commission works to show their place in history and the current society. When such permanent public works are displayed, a little thought should be given as to what people will think of them years later.
An example of good corporate art, the Lichtenstein murals in the rockerfeller centre in new york. Its pop art, its about commercialism, its about newspaper, disposable media culture, it relates to the building, the city and the people. And therefore people can relate to it.
Dont get me wrong, as an object the man is actually quite aesthetically pleasing. It just needs to be somewhere which it can relate to its surroundings.
Olympia park, perhaps, just an idea.
Rant over once again.
To answer, There is no difference I am sure that the numerous, bronze bloke on a horse, Greek fellow without clothes or picture of the missus as witness to the birth of christ meant just as little to the general public centuries ago as modern corporate art means to us today. Coming from centuries ago, pre information age, one reason for their lasting importance is as a historical record of who was important and who was wealthy and who made history.
However, I very much doubt if such an artwork is going to say to people in 500 years, wow, now we know what was going on, that art was a product of the late 20th century and obviously shows bla bla bla ("sod this I'm off south to escape the unemployment or something").
Also, corporate art, I am not against it at all, it should just have a bit of thought, corporate responsibility if you like. As you said, in centuries past, the corporations would commission works to show their place in history and the current society. When such permanent public works are displayed, a little thought should be given as to what people will think of them years later.
An example of good corporate art, the Lichtenstein murals in the rockerfeller centre in new york. Its pop art, its about commercialism, its about newspaper, disposable media culture, it relates to the building, the city and the people. And therefore people can relate to it.
Dont get me wrong, as an object the man is actually quite aesthetically pleasing. It just needs to be somewhere which it can relate to its surroundings.
Olympia park, perhaps, just an idea.
Rant over once again.
I think the Walking Man is amazing!! I visited Munich for the first time last week and didn't know about him, until I suddenly saw a big foot appearing next to me on a Friday evening;) It was very nice and I really wanted to return to see him again before coming back to Belgium. So I especially returned on Sunday, almost missing my flight! I was enchanted by him;) Very nice!
Is the underground maze open to the public? I checked the website and it does look interesting. I'll be in Munich in two weeks and am looking for atypical things to do while in the city.
Thanks.
Thanks.
@Mila
No, the underground is not normally open to visitors, as far as I know. They normally have a pretty high security, so I imagine they would only have an occasional guided tour on a Saturday. It would never hurt to write and ask though.
If you are looking for other atypical things to do, you could take a tour of the Olympiapark Roof...
www.olympiapark-muenchen.de/index.php?id=besucherservice&L=1&tx_olympiaevents_pi1[showUid]=112&cHash=ce1447cf10
Heard the tour is great!
No, the underground is not normally open to visitors, as far as I know. They normally have a pretty high security, so I imagine they would only have an occasional guided tour on a Saturday. It would never hurt to write and ask though.
If you are looking for other atypical things to do, you could take a tour of the Olympiapark Roof...
www.olympiapark-muenchen.de/index.php?id=besucherservice&L=1&tx_olympiaevents_pi1[showUid]=112&cHash=ce1447cf10
Heard the tour is great!
I wonder what keeps him from falling over!
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